Settlement approved with departing town planner in Cromwell

CROMWELL - The Board of Selectmen has agreed to pay departing town planner Craig Minor $1,600 in exchange for his dropping a grievance against the town.

The selectmen approved the payment by a 6-0 vote Tuesday, following a half-hour, closed-door session with Kenneth S. Weinstock, the town attorney for labor negotiations, and Thomas R. Roohr, the director of human resources.

Minor thus becomes the third town employee in less than a month to receive a payout in connection with dropping grievances involving in-house discipline.

Minor was protesting a 10-day suspension that was imposed on him in connection with the disputed sale of parcel of land off Senator Drive. He was among six town employees who were disciplined for their involvement in the matter.

He is leaving the town after 23 years to become the new town planner in Newington. His last day on the job is April 16.

Roohr said the town offered Minor the payout to avoid protracted litigation, which he said could have cost as much as $15,000-$20,000.

Minor was originally given a four-week suspension by Roohr following an internal investigation. However, Deputy First Selectman Richard R. Newton subsequently reduced the four-week suspicion to two weeks. (The town reckons the weeks as five-day work weeks.)

Minor contended he deserved no punishment because he more than anyone else had tried to prevent the sale.

In 2000, as part of the approval of a housing subdivision, the selectman had voted to accept a 2.37-acre parcel of land off Senator Drive to be set aside as as open space.

But the title to the land was never transferred to the town.

In 2009, then-first selectman John M. Flanders waived the town's claim to the land. It was then sold to a senator drive resident for $1,200, the amount that was owed in back taxes on the land.

Minor had warned Flanders that he did not have the power to waive the town's claim to the property without first going to the Board of Selectmen.

In response, Flanders told Minor to "Drop it."

In the face of that curt order, Minor said he did as he was told.

However, in reducing Minor's discipline, Newton castigated the planner, saying he had a responsibility to ignore Flanders' command. Newton said Minor should have brought the matter to the selectmen's attention.

In exchange for Minor dropping the grievance, the town will pay him the $1,600, less taxes.

In March, the town made significantly larger payments to two other employees, Town Engineer Joseph Mazurek and Engineering Technician Robert Niesyn.

They had been disciplined for their roles in the failed roads in the Cider hill sub-division. Both men were demoted and suspended.

However, in exchange for their impending retirements - Niesyn in June and Mazurek in December - the town agreed to make payments of $7,500 to Mazurek and $8,141to Niesyn.

Those were the amounts both men lost through their demotions, officials said.

And the town also gifted Niesyn with a year's free health insurance while giving Mazurek 18 months of free health insurance.

Minor was not immediately available for comment following the board's action.

However, Patricia Kratochvil, the president of UPSEU Local 33, the union that represents town employees including Minor said Wednesday, "I'm glad this is settled for both parties. We wish Mr. Minor the best."

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